GO TEAM: The Mission Viejo U-6 Rockets do a post game cheer for their competition Saturday morning.

WARMING UP: The Mission Viejo Red Fireballs stretch out before their game Saturday.

THE SOCCER MOM: Diana Presta, right, talks with coach Charlie Hanzel, while refereeing a soccer match Saturday morning. Presta is commissioner of the Mission Viejo AYSO league, one of the largest youth soccer leagues in the nation. This is her 35th year as a player, coach, referee and/or commissioner.

GAME TIME: Coach John Bianco leads a pre-game cheer for the U-10 Tidal Waves before the start of their game Saturday.

THE RACE IS ON: The Tigers' Nathan Trueman, left, battles the Rockets' Payton Borges during their AYSO opening day match-up Saturday.

SUBSTITUTION: Diana Presta is commissioner of the Mission Viejo AYSO league, one of the largest youth soccer leagues in the nation. "There's no better feeling than walking out on opening day and seeing kids with a smile on their face."

READY TO GO: A member of the Mission Viejo Strikers waits to go into the game Saturday.

OPENING DAY: Referree Jorge Babiczuk, talks to the MV Strikers before their opening day game at Gilleran Park in Mission Viejo Saturday. The Mission Viejo AYSO league is one of the largest youth soccer leagues in the nation.

TO THE GOAL: Rancho Santa Margarita's Jared Allen, 15, takes a shot on goal during his opening day soccer game in Mission Viejo Saturday.

The little girls had ribbons in their hair. The under-5 boys were fired up Tigers, Rockets and Fireballs.

Teenage boys had sprouted inches since last seen on the soccer pitch in 2007. Teenage girls chose a team name that their parents vetoed.

Saturday was opening day for AYSO in Orange County, a land where more kids play organized soccer than on football, baseball or basketball teams.

AYSO officially stands for American Youth Soccer League, but many parents joke that it really means “All Your Saturdays Occupied.” In the case of Diana Presta, it’s not a joke.

An accountant by day, Presta devotes 25 to 30 hours a week to youth soccer this time of year as commissioner of the Mission Viejo League, one of the nation’s largest AYSO leagues with more than 3,000 players.

“I am not A soccer mom, I am THE soccer mom,” said Presta, 40, a mother of three soccer-playing kids. “Soccer is my entire life.”

Saturday made it all seem worthwhile. Presta sweated with a smile as she refereed from the sidelines of a field in Gilleran Park.

“There’s no better feeling than walking out on opening day and seeing kids with a smile on their face and knowing you’re such an integral part in making it happen,” Presta said.

Between 8:30 and 9:45, while she refereed the game, she received 24 e-mails, eight voice messages and a couple of text messages.

“Some parents said their child didn’t get enough playing time,” Presta said. “There were complaints from coaches about some mouthy players, some girls who I’m going to have to talk to.”

Soccer moms packed the sidelines, watching out for their kids, women who lathered on sunscreen, set up team banners, provided coolers with chilled drinks and snacks for sweaty players.

“We are the real housewives of Orange County,” said Katie Hanzel, whose husband coaches a Mission Viejo team of under-16 boys. “Two practices a week and one game. Never have more than two children, because you can’t be at more than two games at once.”

Hanzel and her fellow soccer moms cheered politely as their sons fell behind a team from Rancho Santa Margarita.

The AYSO takes pride in its emphasis on sportsmanship and equal opportunity. Every player gets time on the field, no matter how well they play.

Rules restrict comments parents can make from the sidelines to prevent abuse of the refs or coaches. Referees and coaches are supposed to receive training in safety, although controversies are inescapable. Last week, for example, an AYSO coach from Lake Forest, George Harcourt Bull, was arrested and charged with collecting child pornography.

Keith White, coach of an under-6 boys team, said the kids were paying more attention this year, because they are more mature than last year.

“Every time a train would go by, they’d all stop and wave,” said White, 44, who works in the accounting department of Ingram-Micro Inc. “It’s a social event more than a sporting event. It’s about outfits and high-fives. It’s mostly about fun.”

Outfits were a big concern for the Neon Knockouts, an under-10 girls team who wore “highlighter yellow” jerseys and ornate hair ribbons of yellow, black and white.

Wendy Purcell, the Neon Knockouts’ team mom, said her daughter, Kaitlyn, made the ribbons for all 12 team members.

“It’s a way of saying ‘I’m still a girl’ in the extra-large T-shirts and extra-large shorts,” Purcell said of her daughter’s decorations.

In Tustin, parents’ biggest concern was the decision of their daughters’ under-19 team to call themselves the Hard Core.

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